


I Want to Believe

by bestpillowtalkever



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, FBI partners, Paranormal, Pining, Undercover, but too long to be a drabble, fake engaged, i have every intention of expanding but do not have the time right now, okay so this isn't quite a one-shot, sci fi, written for the drabble challenge and also my bingo card, x-files au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24323485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestpillowtalkever/pseuds/bestpillowtalkever
Summary: “Beautiful wife you got there,” the man comments. He’s looking in Betty’s direction as she casually questions the old shopkeeper behind the counter.“Fiancée, actually,” Jughead corrects.He nods. “Nice seeing new faces. Don’t usually have folks come and stay longer than to pass through.”“Yes, well, we’re looking for a small town to put down roots,” he says by way of explanation.“She wants a baby, don’t she?” the man asks with a bounce of his eyebrows and a knowing smile.“Actually, he’s the one who wants a baby,” Betty says, suddenly appearing before them.“Can you blame me? I’ll have the luckiest kids in the world if she’s their mother.”She shoots him a wink as if every word he said wasn’t true.OR: Betty & Jughead go undercover to unlock the mysteries of Riverdale
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 38
Kudos: 153
Collections: 7th Bughead Fanfiction Awards - Nominees, Riverdale Bingo Winter 2020





	I Want to Believe

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO this is for yesterday's drabble prompts plus the FBI partners square for my bingo card. I am stopping where I stopped so that I can get back to my WIP before this turns into another Big Thing. I really do plan on coming back to add more chapters, but I'm leaving it as a one-shot for now.

“Beautiful wife you got there,” the man comments. He’s looking in Betty’s direction as she casually questions the old shopkeeper behind the counter. 

“Fiancée, actually,” Jughead corrects.

He nods. “Nice seeing new faces. Don’t usually have folks come and stay longer than to pass through.”

“Yes, well, we’re looking for a small town to put down roots,” he says by way of explanation.

“She wants a baby, don’t she?” the man asks with a bounce of his eyebrows and a knowing smile.

“Actually, he’s the one who wants a baby,” Betty says, suddenly appearing before them.

“Can you blame me? I’ll have the luckiest kids in the world if she’s their mother.”

She shoots him a wink as if every word he said wasn’t true.

—-

They were only a few days into their investigation, but he’d been collecting information about the town for _years_. 

It started back in ‘86, when he read an op-ed about the mysterious small town with an incredibly high rate of murders, disappearances, and violent crime. 

Riverdale.

It was a statistical anomaly that couldn’t be accounted for. It seemed to be a small town like any other. Some had blamed water contamination while others claimed it an “inter generational culture of violence”.

Whatever the case, he’d always kept the town in the back of his mind. Adding any unusual news to the file in his cabinet. 

It wasn’t until the latest development that the Bureau finally deemed it worthy of their attention.

—-

“Well, he gave me a few local history books. All published by various residents throughout the years, certainly nothing peer-reviewed,” she tells him as they stroll down Main Street arm in arm. 

He nods to a passing couple in a way that says _Hello_ , but also says, _I want you to look at me and acknowledge the fact that I’ve got this kickass babe on my arm who is unquestionably out of my league._

“He’s in the ‘the town has a sickness’ camp,” she continues after they pass by, “which I’ll be honest if one more person says to me I’m going to have no choice but to chuck _Boyd’s Textbook of Pathology_ right at their head.”

His partner’s background as a medical doctor often precludes her from seeing the forest for the trees.

“Okay, so clearly there’s not a _sickness_ in the contagious illness sense, but there must be a reason everyone feels that way. I know we ruled the water thing out, but maybe there’s another source of contamination? Soil? Toxic fumes?”

“Toxic fumes?” she responds skeptically. “There’s no way you would have dragged me here if you thought it was _toxic fumes._ ”

He has to laugh. She knows him all too well.

—-

The detectives at the Riverdale PD were no strangers to missing persons investigations, things being as they were, and there’d never been questions about their ability to handle them. 

Well, there had been complaints from people in Riverdale, but in what small town _didn’t_ residents question the competence of their local law enforcement?

The FBI, however, hadn’t had a real reason to intervene previously. 

Not until the Blossom twins.

Cheryl and Jason Blossom had apparently gone to spend the day rowing along the Sweetwater River. When they failed to return home that evening, their parents found nothing but their abandoned boat on the riverbank. 

Being the only family in town with the power and resources to do so, they got the attention of the Bureau, who ultimately offered assistance with the case. 

The agents who came to investigate said they found a lot of red flags. They felt like the police weren’t even trying to find the twins. They sensed that they were… _hiding_ things. 

Fortunately for the Blossoms, they suddenly reappeared several days later, claiming that they’d been lost in the woods. Unfortunately for the FBI, it meant the case was closed. 

It was the odd markings on their bodies that had gotten the attention of Jughead’s superiors.

—-

“Hello and welcome!” she greets brightly (and a little manically), looking up from her magazine. He recognizes her red hair and striking features immediately. “What are you looking for? Let me guess, something trendy? Shiny? Sparkly? Off the shoulder? Full skirt? I just got one in that looks like Mariah Carey’s wedding gown had a love child with Nicole Ebony’s.”

Even in a theoretical wedding scenario, he could in no way imagine Betty in such a dress. Her eyes go wide, indicating that she clearly agrees with the assessment. 

“You’ve got me pegged!” she lies. “Am I really that obvious?”

“Well, I know you’re not from around here, and if you came all this way to my little establishment, it means you’re coming for my signature style.” She turns to Jughead to add, “And what, praytell, are _you_ doing here? You look far too lost and disheveled to be a gay best friend.”

“I’m her fiancé,” he says a little cockily. _Yeah, this girl agreed to marry me._

“So _why_ are you here?” she asks again, dropping her cheerful facade. 

“I’m not terribly superstitious,” Betty quickly tells her, which is quite the understatement. “And, we just do everything together, I can’t imagine making such a big choice without him.”

She puts her hand on his shoulder and leans her head against him. He wraps his arm around her waist in response before bouncing his eyebrows.

This investigation is definitely going to be the death of him. Which is unfortunate, since this is the most interesting one they’ve had since he was 99.9% sure they’d found someone successfully practicing astral projection. 

Cheryl Blossom sighs with an eye roll. “Follow me,” she says flatly before turning to head back into her boutique. He and Betty exchange a glance before following. 

She’s certainly… _something._ He wonders if she’s always been this way, or if the disappearance has had any impact on her mental state. He’d love to get a closer look at her markings, but he gets the feeling that asking her to take her top off would not go over well.

He helps himself to some complimentary pastries and a lemonade before sitting on the plush red couch. The girls pull dresses off the racks before disappearing back into the fitting rooms. 

Their voices carry as they get Betty dressed. When the Blossom girl says, “I got this one a size up, because it runs a little small and I didn’t think your boobs would fit in the four,” he chokes on his lemonade, causing quite the coughing fit. 

By the time he pulls himself together, she emerges through the curtain. 

He’s seen his partner put people in handcuffs. He’s seen her shoot a gun. He’s seen her stab a perp in the face and he’s seen her _get_ stabbed in the leg. He’s seen her bloody and bruised and angry and crying and one time he even thought she was dead.

He’s certainly never seen her like _this._

She looks a little shy, like she’s trying not to smile. Maybe it’s embarrassment. She always seems to make a concerted effort to come off as serious and professional at all times. Playing dress up in front of him is probably well out of her comfort zone. 

“Well, what I _love_ about it is the Mother-of-Pearl beading on the bodice. Shiny, but subtle. It fits you like a glove, _very_ flattering for your figure.” Blossom continues to fawn over Betty as she spins her around in front of the mirror, pointing out various features of the dress.

When she runs out of things to gush about, Betty turns to him and says, “Well, what do you think?”

What does _he_ think? He thinks she looks like a dream. He thinks that it’s absolute torture for the universe to be putting these images in his head. He thinks that his little unrequited crush is reaching unprecedented levels of desperation. He thinks that if he’s forced to attend her actual wedding one day in any role that is _not_ the groom, he may be forced to leave the country altogether. 

“You look _so_ beautiful,” he tells her.

She looks surprised before composing herself. “You don’t think it’s a bit _much?”_ she asks pointedly.

 _Oh._ Was she expecting one of his snide remarks? Now that he’s really looking at the dress, he supposes it _is_ a bit over the top. And, they’d decided before going in that she’d buy the cheapest one.

“Well, I mean, we should definitely see more options,” he quickly adds.

She furrows her brow for a moment before turning to the Blossom girl. “Onto the next one.”

She ends up trying on about a dozen dresses, which takes most of the afternoon. He casually wanders around the store while they’re occupied, but doesn’t find anything terribly promising. He does write down some phone numbers that don’t seem to be associated with her business from the Rolodex he finds on her desk.

Betty is doing a much better job on her end. She asks the girl all the right questions to sound friendly and curious without being nosy. By the time she’s on the last dress, it seems as if she’s been adopted as Cheryl’s new best friend.

“Ta da!” she announces as Betty walks through the curtain once more. “This is the one. I can just feel it.”

It’s certainly not. It’s one of the most outrageous ones of the day. “It _does_ make a statement,” Betty says diplomatically. 

The girls discuss the dress for a while as well as her various other options. Betty is clearly showing a preference for the cheapest one as planned, a gaudy satin thing with short, poofy sleeves.

“What about the lace one? With the long sleeves?” he interjects. It was his favorite of them all, looking classic and beautiful in a way that seemed ineffably Betty. He got the feeling that _she_ liked it too, judging by the way she couldn’t take her eyes off the mirror.

“Oh, I don’t know, that one’s a bit out of our price range,” she reminds him.

“But, if it’s the one you like…”

“You’ll never hear more unlikely words come from my mouth, but listen to the man, Betty dear! If he says spend, then you spend!” Cheryl exclaims.

She looks his way with a skeptical expression. He shrugs and thinks _it’s on the Bureau, anyway._ He’s not sure why it matters, since they’re not _actually_ getting married and this dress will probably just end up sitting in her closet or re-sold. But, he just can’t get the image of her wearing it out of his head. 

“You liked that one the best, didn’t you?” he asks.

“Well, _yes,”_ she responds. 

“So, get it.”

She levels her gaze at his, as if trying to read his mind. “Fine,” she says after a moment. “Let’s do it.”

The Blossom girl squeals and claps and demands that she puts it on again so that she can add a veil and make her hold some fake flowers and play a cassette with the stereotypical wedding march. Betty protests, but ultimately concedes for the sake of humoring the girl they need to befriend. 

The whole thing is just too much for him. He can’t help but smile stupidly at the spectacle and Betty just can’t stop laughing.

She’s finally allowed to change back into her clothes as Cheryl brings the bagged dress to the counter. He pays with his card from the Bureau and Betty joins him a minute later. 

“So, where are you staying while you're in town?” Cheryl asks. “Not the Motel 7, I hope.”

“We actually haven’t made reservations anywhere,” Betty tells her. “It was sort of a spur of the moment trip. We were hoping to find somewhere to stay once we got here.”

“Oh, in that case, you must come stay at Thornhill!”

_Jackpot._

Betty grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze. “How kind of you to offer!”

\---

“That was perfect,” he tells her as soon as they’re in the privacy of the car. "I can’t believe-”

She cuts him off by pulling him into a kiss. Her hands wrap around his neck and he melts into her and he is honestly and completely shocked at the development. She pulls away and looks at him heatedly for a moment before bringing her mouth to his ear.

“I think the car might be bugged,” she breathes.

_Oh._

He deflates in disappointment.

“Don’t look, but there are two men watching us from the bench across the street. They don’t look like locals to me.” She presses another kiss to his mouth. “Well, let’s head to Thornhill. I’m exhausted,” she says at a normal volume. 

She sits back in her seat as he starts the car and hits the road. 

**Author's Note:**

> "Why did this end so sadly??" I ask myself, even though I'm the one who wrote it.  
> As I said at the beginning, I really do hope to come back to this to write more!!


End file.
